Seedling Sale at Market this Saturday |
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Have a veggie subscription with us? You are getting this email because you do not have a box scheduled for this week, but can still make a regular order through our store. If so, please complete the checkout process to submit your order.
Order vegetables before Wednesday at 12pm for pickup and delivery this week.
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These sweet peppers are among some of the seedlings heading to Western Fair and Kitchener market this weekend. We're trialing these compostable pots on a few crops this year! |
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Growing Chefs! Pizza Night |
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We're being featured in Growing Chefs! Pizza Night fundraiser on Friday May 22nd!
Celebrate summer with an evening of wood-fired pizza, seasonal ingredients, cold drinks, and great company — all in support of Growing Chefs! Ontario’s local food education programs!
Growing Chefs! Ontario offers a variety of Food Education Projects to get kids and communities excited about healthy, wholesome food.
This community-focused fundraiser highlights the incredible flavours of our region, featuring fresh produce from us, Common Ground Farm, and artisan cheeses from Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese to showcase the value of supporting local farms and producers.
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Middle River Music Fest 2026
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Early Bird tickets available until the end of May!
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Farm Update
We had such a great weekend getting seedlings from our market stands, open house and pre-orders out to your home gardens. There's so much incredible home-grown food in your futures! If haven’t purchased seedlings yet or you need something additional, we’ll have a good selection at markets this weekend. There will be peppers, hot peppers, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, and beets, in addition to the tomatoes, herbs and lettuce we had last weekend. Email us if you’d like anything set aside!
With some plants already at your homes, there is a lot more breathing room in the greenhouse! We’ll finally have time this week to plant more tomatoes and peppers in the hoophouses. The team has already cleared Hoophouse 3 of anything left to harvest and begun to turn it over to plant peppers, cleared and turned over a caterpillar tunnel for planting tomatoes, and planted cherry tomatoes in Hoophouse 2. We have lots of crops which are very very ready to be planted right now, so this progress is excellent. At this point in the spring, we follow the phrase: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”
In the field, we preparing a section for planting more fruiting crops. This area will host more tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, tomatillos, zucchini and, finally, melons! The first step is incorporating the cover crop (rye and red clover), which will feed our soil as it breaks down. Warmer days will help speed up this process- a good thing because the plants will need to go in that field in about 2 weeks!
Have a question or something you would like to hear more about in a future newsletter? Let us know at the market, farm pickup, or send an email!
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Some cherry tomatoes have started ripening and lots more in the near future |
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FARM STORE NOTES
FROM OUR FARM:
From the Field: Spinach, mint, lovage, thyme, sorrel, oregano, marjoram, dill, cilantro
From the Greenhouse: Cucumber, cherry tomatoes (limited)
From Hoophouses and Tunnels: Salad mix, arugula (limited), basil, dill, cilantro, red radishes, choi, bunched beets, green onions.
From storage: Sunchokes, kohlrabi, and winter radishes.
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
New this week is Asparagus from Pfenning's and Canadian Fiddleheads
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Rhubarb, romaine, sweet potatoes.
Pfenning's Organics (New Hamburg): Asparagus, carrots, rutabaga, yellow onions, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario mushrooms. Canadian fiddle heads and tofu. From further away, citrus, ginger, turmeric.
DAIRY and EGGS
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Eggs.
Through Pfenning's: L'Ancetre butter and grass-fed cheeses
Gunn's Hill (Woodstock): Brie, Handeck and Five Brother's cheese.
FROZEN
3Gen Organics (Wallenstein): Ground pork, sausage, bacon, ham, tenderloin, chops
YU Ranch (Tillsonburg): Pasture-raised ground beef, beef patties, stewing beef
New Leaf Foods (London): Plant-based beet burgers
BAKERY
J&D Peters Tortillas (Aylmer): Corn, spelt, whole wheat and unbleached flour tortillas.
La Houlette de vie (St. Thomas): Sourdough bread and pastry with grain that Seth fresh-mills himself
Artisan Bakery (London): Sourdough bread and pastries made with local flour
PANTRY
Aldred Maple (West Lorne): Amber, dark, or whiskey barrel-aged maple syrup.
Wildflowers Honey (St. Thomas): Unpasteurized honey from hives all over Elgin County, including our farm!
Mat's Fine Oils (Staffordville). Fresh, organic and cold-pressed, hemp and sunflower oil. Store in the refrigerator.
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PICKUP/ DELIVERY OPTIONS
Farm pickup: Thursday 4pm-8pm.
Home delivery: Thursday or Friday in London/St.Thomas, Saturday in KW region
Western Fair Market pickup: Saturday 8 am to 3 pm / Sunday 10 am to 2pm
Kitchener Market pickup: Saturday 7 am to 2 pm
We love to re-use wherever possible! We can take our CGF boxes and liner bags, strawberry and blueberry baskets/boxes, milk bottles, and egg cartons.
For deliveries, please leave these return items out where you would like your order dropped off. Thank you!
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Early Bird tickets available until the end of May!
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Why am I on this list? At some point you signed up for our previous "farmstand" list or our newsletter list. Want to get off the list? No problem: . Common Ground Farm 6986 Middle River Road St. Thomas, Ontario N5P 3S9 |
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